The phrase "a formidable candidate for" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when discussing someone who is highly qualified or suitable for a particular position, role, or opportunity.
Example: "With her extensive experience and impressive skill set, she is a formidable candidate for the leadership position."
Alternatives: "a strong contender for" or "a prime candidate for".
Mr. Bloomberg could make a formidable candidate for governor, in part because of his great wealth.
She doesn't need Biden — she would be a formidable candidate for president or vice president on her own.
Henry R. Muñoz III, the finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee and a friend and a partner in the Futuro Fund, said he believed she would be "a formidable candidate" for public office.
In 1997, Republican senators held up her nomination by President Bill Clinton to the appeals court for more than a year, foreseeing that as a Hispanic appellate judge she would be a formidable candidate for the Supreme Court.
After saying he had "tremendous respect" for Mrs. Clinton and calling her a "formidable candidate" for national office, Mr. Warner said that Mrs. Clinton was not the presumptive Democratic nominee.
One for the inessential on all counts folder is A Long Way Down, an excruciatingly tone-deaf adaptation of Nick Hornby's already iffy novel about suicide-club bonding, and already a formidable candidate for the year's most objectionable film.
"Let's face it, Adolfo is a formidable candidate," said Councilman David I. Weprin, another candidate for comptroller.
On this issue, President Bush remains a formidable candidate, and the task for the Democrats will be to nominate a challenger whom voters see as a strong leader.
Almost all of Mr. Liu's $1.5 million war chest has been powered by the modest $800 contributions from the city's fast-growing Asian-American community, reflecting the kind of broad support that would make Mr. Liu a formidable candidate if he ran for mayor in 2013.
In his latest move to establish himself as a formidable candidate in the crowded race for New York attorney general, Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky is to announce today that he has been endorsed by nearly 30 Assembly members from throughout the state.
But Mr. Powers died of a heart attack in his sleep less than a month after his selection, sending the party scrambling to come up with a formidable candidate with just weeks before the deadline for submitting nominating petitions to qualify for the ballot.
